Front cover of the personal notebook of Ludovicus Mirandolle (110x70mm)

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Ludovicus Mirandolle Werken Catalogue

4.1 The Notebooks

Among all the materials that Corrie de Roo-Vierdag and her son Paul de Roo could provide us with, there were also a few very small pocket notebooks and agenda’s. Inside these books Ludovicus Mirandolle wrote down all the compositions he worked on during his career as composer. This includes works from 1934 until 1973, and a few works without a date.

            Ludovicus Mirandolle starts composing for simple and small instrumentations. The first work that he mentions in these notebooks is 8 etudes pour cor de basset (LMW2) composed in 1934. About this piece he writes in his notebook: “1934 November, Etude voor Bassethoorn in F. Nr 1 (de etudes, ook de latere op voorstel van Piet Swager opgeschreven, melodie enz. natuurlijk origineel v. mij, behoudens de bijgevoegde opmerking bij in latere etude)”1. We can read here that Mirandolle starts writing etudes for the Basset horn because Piet Swager proposed this idea to him. Piet Swager (1878-1936) was the second clarinettist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and was one of the many clarinettist that Ludovicus Mirandolle had contact with. Piet Swager must have been an important person in the life of Ludovicus Mirandolle. In Trois Duos (LMW16) published by Éditions Musicales ALPHONSE LEDUC in 1938, we can see that the first movement has the text “à la mémoire de Piet Swager”2. The first movement of Trois Duos was dedicated to Piet Swager who passed away a year before Mirandolle started on the three duos.

The first work in 1933 called Excersises pour cor de basset (LMW1) he did not mention in his notebook, but this we had to find out in the sheetmusic itself. The Exercises for basset horn are not orginally by Ludovicus Mirandolle, but are other already existing exercises that he made transcriptions of for basset horn. I still see this as one of his works, showing Mirandolle’s interest in the basset horn.

            As we are lucky to recover quite some manuscripts from the Nederlands Muziek Instituut. Unfortunately also quite a few pieces have been lost. An example of this is the piece Quatuor de clarinettes, dédié à Gaston Hamelin. This clarinet quartet has not been published, but has been mentioned in various publications of Mirandolles music. All these publications mention Quatuor de clarinettes as “inédit”, unpublished.3 When we try to look for this piece the only place mentioning the existence of this music is Rossini, Maison de Ventes aux Enchères, an auction house in Paris.4 . Rossini was auctioning the music archive of clarinettist Gaston Hamelin. As the title already indicates, this is the clarinettist that Ludovicus Mirandolle wrote it for. In his notebook Mirandolle writes “September/October 1938, Premier Quatuor pour clarinettes (2 clarinettes (sopranos), clar-alto en Fa, 1 clarinette basse) Op verzoek van den heer Gaston Hamelin te Colombes (Seine) geschreven voor het “Quatuor de clarinettes Gaston Hamelin”…”5. Gaston Hamelin had contact with Ludovicus Mirandolle to ask him to write a piece for his clarinet quartet. As this quartet has never been published we can assume that this has to be the original manuscript by Ludovicus Mirandolle. This assumption is confirmed when we see the “Description du lot 93” Rossini gives for the lot that contains the archive of Gaston Hamelin. In the list of composers and pieces in this archive it says “…Mirandolle (manuscript autographe, dédié au quatuor Hamelin)…”.6 This indicates that indeed this lot contained the original manuscript, and probably the only edition, of the Quatuor de clarinettes. The only possibility to retrieve the clarinet quartet was finding contact with the auction house. As a response they had the disappointing news that they are not allowed to give any information of the buyers. They were willing to send a message to the buyer, but until now (2021) still no response from the new owner. Via Pierre Woudenberg and international music magazines, we sent out a call for people who would know more about Ludovicus Mirandolle, or who could help us finding the missing clarinet quartet, but also this attempt resulted in a dead end.  

4.2 Dedications and in memoriam

Auguste Périer

E. Duval

Stanislaw Krticka

Gaston Hamelin

Yvonne Lefébure

Freddie Goldbeck

Alfred Bürckner

Francois Etienne

Robert Boulay 

Michelle Leclerc

Jan Schmitz

4.3 The Ludovicus Mirandolle Werken Catalogue (LMW)

Having the personal notebooks and agenda’s of Ludovicus Mirandolle, together with the previously published editions and information provided by the Nederlands Muziek Instituut. It was a great opportunity to make a catalogue list of the music of Ludovicus Mirandolle, as it has not been previously done. Introducing the Ludovicus Mirandolle Werken catalogue (LMW), including the compositions we know of written between 1933 and 1973. Showing the works in order of year, including LMW number, location, date and instrumentation. 

With this catalogue we have a complete overview of the pieces that Ludovicus Mirandolle wrote, and will be a great help in locating missing pieces. 

These catalogue numbers will be used in the new editions of the music by Ludovicus Mirandolle, to be published.

Woudenberg, The Hague, 11/2021

“1934 November, Etude voor Bassethoorn in F. Nr 1 (de etudes, ook de latere op voorstel van Piet Swager opgeschreven, melodie enz. natuurlijk origineel v. mij, behoudens de bijgevoegde opmerking bij in latere etude)”7

"October (1937), Duo voor 2 klarinetten in A (à la mémoire de Piet Swager)..."8

ALDE Livres & Autographes (19 octobre 2009), Catalogue Musique, 93, Paris (p.28) PDF

Ludovicus Mirandolle Werken Catalogue PDF